Pinned to Mary Paley's denim jacket is a prized possession: a medal representing a Sicilian-American society for "the Black Madonna," Maria del Tindari. The South End had several such societies, and a three-day street festival was held in the Madonna's honor every September for more than 30 years.

Paley was given the membership medal by Dominic Paratore; it had belonged to his mother, who made her home in the South End. Paratore appears in Paley's documentary, The Neighborhood That Disappeared, about the 98 acres of neighborhood that was demolished for the construction of the Empire State Plaza in the early 1960s.

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Source: http://metroland.net/